I work in a charity shop ama

[BeefyCakes]

Pretty much just what the subject is.

I am an assistant manager of a charity shop, ask away.

Do you enjoy it?

What does the charity raise money for?

What’s the weirdest donation you’ve had?

What’s the most valuable donation you’ve had?

If someone in need (homeless for example) comes into the shop can you give them clothes?

I absolutely love it, I love the charity and I love being able to merchandise without having a plan in from of me.

I work for a charity that champions people with disabilities rights.

Weirdest donation? Vibrators deffo!

Most valuable? Probably some old coins, you don't tend to get anything of great, great value.

With regards to giving a homeless person a pair of shoes or a coat, I probably would, however if every homeless person in the town I work in came in, then I'd probably start needing to turning them away.

How come there are no bargains any more? Do you google all the stamps and labels on donated items to find out if they’re worth anything?

Do you just bin a lot of the donations?

Do the donated clothes get laundered by the charity before they go on the rails?

Do the volunteers siphon off all the good stuff?

With regards to bargains, that's subjective I suppose, we have guidelines, but we in our shop price a little lower than that. I agree that there are so many charity shops that overpriced and because they are so overpriced they won't sell the stock.

We will google if we think there are items that will be worth considerably more than what we would usually price.

We don't really bin anything, but if there's a game without it's pieces that'll go in the bin. If it's something that's stained and it's in good condition and sellable we've been know to take the item home to wash. If it's un-sellable then we'll sell it for rags. We pretty much in one way or another sell it.

We don't launder anything that we put out (previous statement is a rare occurrence) we will steam it and if it's a little musty then a spritz of fabreeze works wonders.

We don't get to siphon off the good stuff, we work for a charity and the goal is to make money for that charity, if we never sold the good stuff we'd gain a reputation of only having shabby stock.

Most of my local Charity shops do just have shabby stock so I guess they probs are siphoning off the good stuff for their volunteers!

Possibly, or they're not getting good stuff donated.

When you're sorting through donations, which runs into the 100's of items a day, I'd go bankrupt if I bought everything "good".

But different charities have different ways of doing things.

We will google if we think there are items that will be worth considerably more than what we would usually price.
Ahh, half the fun of charity shops used to be rummaging around for a bargain. Vintage jewellery and collectibles, brand name clothes... donors get rid of unwanted stuff, shoppers get a bargain and the charity makes a small profit, everyone wins. Nowadays anything of any value is identified and priced up so it’s no longer a bargain

Lots of charity shops around here are really badly organised. Do you have other retail experience to make it all more sellable?

What's your stock turnover like? I know here it's full of polyester from primark that I wouldn't buy in a million years!

How long have you done it for? Have you noticed a difference in people donating/buying since disposable fashion, i.e. Primark etc, really took off?

After overheads what percentage of donations actually makes it to the charity? I’ve heard as little as 20% in some cases. I regularly give bags of good items but do find that statistic rather depressing.

With regards to bargains, in that sense if we see something that sold originally for 100, we would mark it as 7 instead of 5.

If it's something like a collectable items that's selling for 100's online we might price it at 50 for example. We don't but some charities have ebay pages, where some of this stuff ends up.

I think part of the problem is online sites, whereas traditionally people would donate their old clothes to charity shops, many people will put their goods online. Which is absolutely fine, but it does have an effect.

Lots of charity shops around here are really badly organised. Do you have other retail experience to make it all more sellable? I have nearly 20 years in retail, so there is some commercialisation there, but that is more with regards to merchandising.

What's your stock turnover like? I know here it's full of polyester from primark that I wouldn't buy in a million years! if things don't see in a couple of weeks it'll be sent to another shop. There can't be a one size fits all approach to charity shops, stores need to understand what their local community will buy, we'd never sell a shop full of Primark either, so we won't put it out and will send it on.

How long have you done it for? Have you noticed a difference in people donating/buying since disposable fashion, i.e. Primark etc, really took off? I've been doing it less than a year, what we tend to see is people donating loads after a season, so it'll be a mix. If it's in good condition then we'll sell it.

After overheads what percentage of donations actually makes it to the charity? I’ve heard as little as 20% in some cases. I regularly give bags of good items but do find that statistic rather depressing. I don't know the answer to this, I don't deal with that kind of thing, what I do know is that we have less overheads, so in theory it should be higher. But I genuinely don't know.

What stuff do you wish people wouldn't dnatet?

I often donate to charity shops but everywhere I go in to, the staff seem annoyed that they've got more donations to go through ... is this how you really feel? Is it really a rubbish job going through the donations, and are you too overloaded?

What stuff do you wish people wouldn't dnatet? Dirty knickers, boxers and socks

That's interesting - we donate clean socks/underwear as we were told they can be sold for rags. Are we accidentally scummy?

How long have you done it for?

Do you think Mary Portas and her charity shop overhaul had a positive effect?

Do men buy a lot of underwear that you know is for themseves?

And men buying womens shoes?

I once had a couple buy loads of my shoes when I did a car boot sale. They didnt even look at the sizes. They couldnt get them in the bag quick enough! Maybe they put them on Ebay

Thanks, that's reassuring to know. I always feel a bit bad donating, I don't know why (and I don't donate underwear, clean or otherwise!).

Possibly slightly off topic but can you offer any suggestions as to what I should do with clothes that are no longer good enough to give to charity? Hate sending to landfill.

Hi OP. A friend volunteered at a charity shop. She was asked to clear out surplus stock from the storage shed into a skip. She said it was heartbreaking seeing what was being just thrown away, and that staff/other volunteers took other items home too instead of putting them in the skip. She didn't think the people who had donated all the items would be at all happy if they knew what had happened to them, and it put her off volunteering there. It sounds like this isn't your experience?

Sorry to jump on your thread but I ( used to volunteer,7 year's ) for my local hospice shop. Yes we have also had dirty knickers complete with sanitary towel fall out the leg of trousers, along side snotty hankies in pockets, yellow pissy fronts on mens trousers and bags of food encrusted clothes which obviously came from a family member who's loved one has died in a care home ( name tags in clothes ). Ah yes I remember it well. However I would add to was all taken in with gratitude.